Shawnee Mission changes course, mandates COVID masks for all schools, all grades

The Shawnee Mission school board on Thursday decided to require masks for all students and staff when classes begin next week, going further than an earlier decision — and a county health order — that only mandated masks for elementary schools.

In a special meeting, the board voted 6-1 to mandate masks for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students, as well as all staff members. Board member Brad Stratton was the only “no” vote.

“The masks work on stopping the spread. We know we can open and operate safely with masking in place,” school board president Heather Ousley said. “So it seems odd to not use that tool that’s available to us to make sure we can provide a learning environment for kids.”

Last week, the school board voted 6-1 to require masks only in elementary schools, but keep them optional in middle and high schools. The district also offered an opportunity for staff members to opt out of the mandate with proof of vaccination.

But since then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged universal masking in schools this fall. And COVID-19 cases have continued to surge in the Kansas City metro.

On Thursday afternoon, the Johnson County Board of Commissioners voted 5-2 to mandate masks inside public and private schools with students as old as sixth grade, echoing Shawnee Mission’s earlier, more lenient decision.

Under the county order, middle schools with sixth-graders also have to require masks, unless sixth-graders are separated from higher grades throughout the school day.

The county’s vote led to a flurry of decisions among Johnson County school districts.

After a lengthy meeting, the Olathe school board voted to do just what Shawnee Mission did, requiring masks for all students and staff.

But the Blue Valley school district, which had previously said masks would be optional, announced that it would require masks up through eighth grade, but just strongly recommend them in high schools. In that district, sixth-graders are housed in middle schools.

Shawnee Mission Superintendent Michelle Hubbard said that middle and high schools will work on enforcing the district’s universal mask mandate, despite not having a county rule backing it up at those grade levels.

At Thursday’s county board meeting, several physicians, many of them parents in the Blue Valley district, pleaded with the county to mandate masks for all grade levels this fall. But that proposal failed.

The county’s legal counsel told The Star that schools might be able to enact their own mask policies that are stricter or more lenient than the order the county approved. But they left the legality of such action up to the school districts’ discretion, as questions remain due to a recent ruling by a Johnson County judge.

Senate Bill 40, which rewrote Kansas’ emergency management laws, allowed residents to sue over public health measures and limited health officials’ ability to issue pandemic restrictions. A Johnson County judge declared the law unconstitutional, and it could be months before the Kansas Supreme Court issues a final ruling on the matter.

The De Soto district on Monday decided to require everyone to wear masks in schools this fall, regardless of vaccination status. Other Johnson County districts have been slow or unwilling to mandate masks so far this summer. Blue Valley previously decided to make masks optional. The Olathe school board was scheduled to meet Thursday evening.

Local and national health officials are urging school districts to take action to protect students as they return to classrooms this month. They worry that the highly contagious delta variant will rapidly spread in classrooms of unvaccinated and unmasked children, leading to mass quarantines and school closures. Children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible for the vaccine.

In Johnson County, only 40% of children ages 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated, health officials said.

Coronavirus cases are skyrocketing throughout the metro, including among children, and hospitals are increasingly strained. On Thursday, the county’s positivity rate — the number of positive tests in the past 14 days — was 8.7%, up from 1.5% in early June.

At Thursday’s county board meeting, Health Officer Joseph LeMaster said, if this were last summer, the county’s current infection rate would have led to calls for a return to remote learning. But now district officials say that’s not an option after the state Legislature placed restrictions on public schools’ use of remote instruction.

Under new law, school districts may only allow individual students to temporarily learn remotely in excess of 40 hours. The state school board could allow a district to offer exceptions in certain, very limited circumstances.

Ousley said she had concerns about the district not mandating masks, then being forced to return to remote learning, potentially putting school funding at risk.

Health officials agree that universal masking, along with social distancing, testing and other COVID-19 mitigation strategies, helped prevent widespread transmission of the virus in schools last year.

On the Missouri side of the Kansas City metro, several districts have decided to mandate masks, including Kansas City Public Schools, as well as the Liberty, North Kansas City, Center and Park Hill districts.

Johnson County has not imposed a countywide mask mandate.

Kansas City’s indoor mask mandate went into effect Monday. Jackson County announced Wednesday it plans to reinstate its mask order, effective next Monday. Officials in both Platte and Wyandotte counties were scheduled to consider mask mandates at meetings Thursday night.